


Shadow

by RavenaMalk (Sarosia)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Breeding, F/M, Mutual Non-Con, Pregnant, Shadow - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-28 02:41:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18202412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarosia/pseuds/RavenaMalk
Summary: After blacking out for several months, a girl wakes in a hotel room. Pregnant and very confused.





	Shadow

Greta set the camera on the dresser and went to sit on the end of the bed. She had a small face and a set of eyes that were too large for it. Eyes that had somehow grown with the fear pumping through her body. The body that was not hers alone. Not anymore.

 

It wasn't the one she'd grown up with. None of this had been her choice aside from vowing to track down the thing that took her brother. The Shadow could have been behind that, too, now that she thought about it. Pulling her strings. Turning her into a puppet. And for what? Was _this_  its end goal? Why, for God's sake?

 

Her own face looked so alien in the small screen on the camera. Greta took a deep breath and clapped a hand over her mouth. Not again. Not again. The path from this bed to the bathroom was burned into her mind so that she didn't have to think about it. And good thing because the only thought she could form was about making it to the toilet.

 

Greta didn't sit down this time. She didn't look at the screen, either. "I don't _know_  what happened to me. I don't know where Matt is. I still don't know what the Shadow is or why it targeted Mike, my brother. What it does with the people it takes.

 

"It didn't take us. Obviously, it didn't take us. I don't know what happened. I'm not even sure what I remember and what I don't. It's...I'm crazy. I'm going crazy." Greta turned her back on the camera and took several deep breaths.

 

She spun back around. "I'm not crazy. As far as I can tell, I've lost at least five months of memory. I don't know what I did or with who, but I've got an idea. Oh man, do I have an idea.

 

"This, is real." Greta steeled herself for seeing this on the small screen. For showing it to the world. Or, at least, to the people watching their channel on the internet. Then she pulled her hoodie up to reveal the bulge at her middle where the skin was being pushed out by something.

 

"I don't know if I'm actually preg-" Greta had to clear her throat and try again. "Pregnant or if that thing did something to me and now I'm...I don't know. I don't know anything, but..."

 

Greta picked up the camera so that her face filled the screen. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that we went looking for you and I'm even more sorry that we found you. Please, just leave me alone. And Matt? If you're watching this, find me. Click your heels and -"

 

Something rose up in the back of her throat and she dropped the camera on the bed. If she'd been able to think about anything other than getting to the toilet again, Greta would have noticed the shadowy figure standing in the corner of the room.

 

~~

 

At first, Greta couldn't tell if the banging was real or a part of the nightmare she'd been having. One in a string of them since her first view of the Shadow and the last time she'd seen Mike.

 

It wasn't the first time she'd dozed off on the bathroom floor, but it was always disorienting waking up there. The constant tang of vomit in the air was becoming familiar, though, for good or bad. Greta scrubbed her mouth with one arm and forced herself to sit up. She was still trying to figure out the dream versus reality knocking thing when someone banged on her door again.

 

Greta scrambled to her feet and scrubbed off her face in the sink. It didn't make her look any better, but she felt a little more like she could face the world. Or at least whoever was crashing her peaceful little slice of hell. From the corner of her eye, the shower curtain grew dark. When she looked at it straight on, though, there was nothing different about it.

 

The peephole in the door was designed for someone taller and she had to get on her tiptoes to see the man standing on the other side. Greta's heart dropped so hard into her stomach that her heels hit the carpet. She wanted to cry and fought it with everything she had.

 

Finally. Someone other than her who would understand. Someone who might actually be able to fill in some of the blanks in her memory.

 

Matt.

 

Greta pressed her face into the door. "Please tell me that's really you."

 

"I ain't a fuckin' mirage. Open up."

 

The sound of his voice had her scrambling to get the lock open that she jammed two of her knuckles on the door. It hurt, but the pain was more like a thought rushing past on her way to getting the door open and really seeing him.

 

Matt appeared to have aged ten years since she remembered him the last time she'd been in control of her body. When they were exploring that church before the Shadow turned her brain into mush again.

 

They were an unlikely adventuring pair. Greta was twenty-two, four years out of high school and four years cut away from all of the friends that ran off to college. But it wasn't like she could just go. Not when Mike had just gone missing and she'd seen *it* take him.

 

Matt was a year away from forty. At least, he was the last time she'd seen him. His hair looked as if he'd sprouted a few out-of-place greys up top and in the unkempt bristles on his chin. There were bags around his eyes that she definitely remembered as not being that bag.

 

There was a crushed packed of cigarettes sticking out of the pocket on his shirt. The smell of stale smoke came off of him and after all the time they'd spent together hunting the Shadow, it smelled like home. Like cheap motel rooms and fast food eaten in his car.

 

Greta wanted to hug him, but that's not how they were. They were barely friends. They had the same goal, that was all. They tolerated each other, looked out for each other, but they were not friends.

 

"You saw the video...I knew you'd come."

 

Matt shook his head, brushing past her when she moved out of the doorway. "I ain't been online in at least the past week."

 

"Oh. Then how did you find me?" Greta double-checked the lock on the door even though it wasn't going to stop the thing that might come for them at any moment.

 

Matt tossed an open packaged on the bed. "That showed up in the backseat of my car last Saturday."

 

Greta knew what it had to be, but she still needed to ask. "What is it?"

 

"Card from your camera," Matt cast a glance at the camera sitting on the dresser, "and a piece of paper with this hotel and this room on it."

 

Matt slid into one of the chairs at the table with his back to the television while she set it up to take the card. Before she started the video, Matt had one more thing to say. "Greta...I want you to know that I would have never done that to you. I don't remember any of it."

 

Greta swallowed past the new lump in her throat and clicked the remote, taking a seat on the bed.

 

The first thing she saw was herself. Unfortunately, she recognized the blank look on her own face from other videos where she'd lost time. The Greta on screen was slowly walking back and forth on front of yet another cheap motel when Matt showed up with the camera. So far, they hadn't been able to catch the Shadow on camera, but when there was a chance, it was always running.

 

Matt gently took her arm and guided her back into the room. He set her on the nearest bed, dropping a white fast food bag next to her. Matt's voice was so artificially chipper that it made the real Greta's skin crawl because it was so unlike him.

 

_'Time for dinner!'_

 

"How long?" Greta asked his back. Matt looked like every muscle in his body was pulled tight and he was only sitting there. His tension put her on edge and Greta looked around the room to make sure that the Shadow wasn't creeping in.

 

"Almost a month at this point. I didn't know what to do except keep you safe until you snapped out of it. But..."

 

"But what, Matt?" Greta wished he'd just tell her what was going on so that she didn't have to watch this...this empty version of her.

 

On screen, Matt said, _'Come on, we've been over this. You know you gotta eat something.'_

 

Greta's movements were mechanical as she pulled a burger from the bag. The paper on it seemed too much for her to handle, though, and she just stared at it until Matt came to unwrap it for her. Matt sat on the other bed facing her to eat his own.

 

Halfway through his burger, though, he set it on the bed next to him. _'Wake up, Greta.'_

 

Greta took another bite and chewed it with even movements of her jaw. Matt started shaking his head and then he was suddenly shaking her by the shoulders. _'Wake up, goddammit! Just wake up!'_

 

Once her head stopped moving, Greta blinked at him and resumed chewing. Her head rocked to the side so that she was looking straight into the camera. Greta outside the camera stared at herself, unsure what she'd just seen. She opened her mouth, but Matt was talking again.

 

_'Why won't you just wake up?!'_  He hit her again, smacking her head to the other side. Another hit and Greta was staring at herself, still blank. There was blood on her lip. She must have bit her tongue.

 

There wasn't anything but silence on the video after that. They finished their food and went to bed. Despite the abrupt violence he'd just shown, Matt very carefully put her to bed. He tucked her in and went to his own bed.

 

"Skip to - " Matt said at the same time Greta stated with, "Did you just - ?"

 

Greta stared at his back. "Did you seriously just hit me?"

 

Matt stood to face her. "And you saw how you reacted. If I did that you right know, you'd fight back and you fuckin' know it! I just wanted..." Matt took a shaking breath. "I just wanted you to wake up. I didn't know if you ever would."

 

"Is that what you meant when you said that you never would have done it? Because that looks like you're in pretty good control of yourself." Greta snapped.

 

Matt jabbed a finger towards the screen where they were sleeping with one light on between them. "One hour."

 

For the first time, Greta felt disgusted by him. Even though she had an idea how frustrating and terrifying that whole experience had to be. Greta didn't know how she'd react in the same situation. If she would do anything to get him to 'wake up.'

 

Matt remained standing as Greta sped through the video until her double left the bed. Watching her get up, he knew he couldn't stay and watch it again. Matt patted the smokes in his pocket and headed for the door. "I can't...I'll be back, I just need some air. Some smoke."

 

Greta didn't try and stop him and he didn't blame her. The hard slaps weren't the part that had shocked him. Matt remembered those and the immediate shame that had followed him to this day. He remembered every detail of the month he'd spent taking care of her up until she disappeared that night.

 

Matt went downstairs and out to sit on a bench out front. There was one of those tall butt-cans sitting next to it and no signs posted against it. Matt lit up and found that even outside, he couldn't keep himself from mentally going through the next events on the video.

 

The girl had left the bed. Matt always stuffed his socks into his empty shoes and she found them. Greta pulled on the fabric to stretch them. She climbed onto the bed and Matt was even more ashamed that he hadn't woken up then in time to stop her. But he didn't wake up until she had tied his wrists to the bed with his own socks. When she pulled his jeans down and touched him.

 

_'Greta?_ '' Tired. Still half-asleep. Still not sure if this was a dream.

 

Realizing that was her hand on his cock really woke him up. Matt had tried to stop her, to talk to her, but he couldn't. She had tied his hands too tight. From what he saw on the video, he tried to get free. Until the seizure had started up and then he was just as gone as she was.

 

Matt had never wanted this. Compared to him, she was just a kid. Legally she was an adult, but he'd never...

 

If Matt closed his eyes, he could see the video. First there was her moving on top of him until she untied one of his hands so that he could roll them and...

 

He dropped the cigarette. There was absolutely nothing right about that and that the Shadow had manipulated them in that way, leaving nothing about their lives untouched, made him sick. That he was beginning to get hard just thinking about the video felt even worse.

 

Matt didn't head back up until he was sure the video had to be off. It was still hard standing in front of her door knowing that the next time he saw her, she would know what he did. What they'd done. This was too much. The shadow too powerful for them to even hope they might get the upper hand. It was way too dangerous.

 

Greta opened the door and looked wide-eyed at him. Her lips were red and swollen as if she'd been biting them. And she had. Greta had watched the whole thing. The only answer that made her feel any better was the fact that Matt would be the father and not some stranger.

 

Matt kept averting his eyes from her. "So you saw?"

 

Greta nodded. "Sorry I raped you."

 

"It wasn't you." Matt shut the door behind him. "I know this is important to you and getting justice is big on my list, too. But I think this thing is too big for us. Too strong. I'm done and I don't want you keepin' on with this, either. Somethin' worse could've happened and - "

 

"I can't stop." Greta said.

 

"I understand about your brother, you know I do, but - "

 

"No, you don't understand." There was something in Greta's voice that made him turn to face her. "I can't just walk away. This won't go away if I do."

 

Matt started shaking his head as she began lifting her hoodie. Underneath and pressing out against her too-tight jeans was her stomach. There was no way to mistake what he was looking at. "No. No way."

 

"Surprise!" Greta said, throwing jazz hands to either side.

 

"Whoa," Matt stumbled back and fell to sit on the bed when he bumped it. "You're...that's a...us?"

 

Leaving her hoodie above her stomach, she rubbed it with both hands. Greta opened her mouth and decided to nod instead.

 

"I'm so sorry." Matt said, eyes still glued to her stomach.

 

"I didn't have any say in it and neither did you. The Shadow raped _us_."

 

Greta watched the shock flow into disgust and then resignation. It made him look older than he was. He said, "Fuck. I didn't want any of this."

 

Greta's stomach dropped. She knew what he meant. Logically. But her system was in such upheaval that what she knew didn't matter in the same way that what she felt did. And she felt betrayed. Cast aside. Abandoned because he didn't want this and he didn't want her and unlike her, Matt was free to go off and forget all of this.

 

Greta's eyes burned. "Then I guess you can get out of here."

 

"Greta, what about - "

 

"Get out of here!" She yelled. Her eyes were watering and she didn't want him to see it. "You wanted out? Get out. Go. This isn't your problem, right?"

 

"Greta," Matt reached out to her and she spun away. Her balance wasn't as good as it should be and the quick turn made her stumble.

 

Before she could catch herself, Matt was there against her back. His hands landed on her stomach and they both froze. Pressed together with his arms holding her tight. Neither knew what to do, but Greta refused to move and break this moment. This touch.

 

Carefully, Matt slid his hand over her stomach. Feeling it. Greta found the gentle touch more relaxing than a massage and her eyes closed. Just like that, her mood had shifted from wanting to be alone and crying to wanting to be closer to him and having him be closer to her. When he tried to pull his hand away, Greta pushed it back.

 

"Please..." She dragged his hand down below her stomach. "You have no idea how this feels."

 

Matt tried to pull his hand away and she wouldn't let him. "Greta, I don't think you - "

 

"I don't know if it's hormones or that thing or the video, but I...I need you."

 

"Greta..."

 

"Please." Greta worked his hand under the band of her jeans before letting go to unhook the button and drop the zipper. "Please." She pushed his hand against her and then he was moving inside her on his own.

 

Matt's fingers were thick and rough and amazing. Greta hadn't really noticed until his fingers were moving easily in her that she'd gotten wet at some point. The words against her neck startled her. "Tell me what I can do."

 

Greta's voice came in a squeak. "Make me come. Please make me come."

 

Matt moved his fingers more confidently, swirling them around her most sensitive bit on every third stroke. It was almost embarrassing how quickly she was on her way for the edge.

 

Greta grabbed his arm and dug her nails in, scratching him as she came. Time stopped as she caught her breath and tried to pull any thought back into her head. Matt pulled his hand out of her pants, moving it to hold her hip.

 

Greta huffed out a laugh. "You have no idea how much I needed that. I was about to go out and buy a few veggies, if you know what I mean."

 

"I didn't do much." Matt's voice was rough. It sent a shiver down her back that made her press against him. Attracted to her or not, he was at least affected by what just happened.

 

"Then you have two options here." Greta pressed back into him. "Either you can leave right now - and don't come back - or I can give you permission to work out your deepest fantasies on my very willing body."

 

"You didn't ask permission when you did what you did." Matt kissed her crown.

 

"Payback is fine, too." Greta whispered.

 

Too slowly, Matt dragged his hands up to her chest. "On the bed. On your back."

 

Greta took a shaking breath and did as he asked, her mind filling with images from the video. It had shaken her up for bad *and* good. Before crawling on the bed, she pulled the hoodie up the rest of the way and off. After a second's thought, she went ahead and stripped off her jeans.

 

Matt climbed on the bed next to her. He came all the way to put his face at hers. It had been a while since he'd shaved and the hairs on his face scratched her when they kissed.

 

One thing was still bothering her, though. "You said you'd never do this. Not with me."

 

Matt shook his head, covering her right breast entirely with one hand. "I said I would never do this _to_  you." Kiss. "Never force you." Kiss. "Never take advantage of you." Kiss. "Even the way this happened, you didn't have any choice and I hate - "

 

Greta moved his hand from her breast to her stomach. On her back, the bump was smaller, but still there. Always there. "It doesn't matter. This is real and there's no stopping it. It happened and it's happening again, right?"

 

Matt looked nervous. He pressed his lips to places in a path going down her chest to her stomach. "I've never even thought having kids was a possibility."

 

"We don't know if it is a baby or something else." Greta thought about the fluttery feeling that came and went in her stomach, but didn't mention it. "If the Shadow went to so much trouble, then we can assume it's not a good thing."

 

"And we can't go to a hospital because an ultrasound would bring up more questions than answers." Matt added. "Shit. We really are fucked."

 

"About that..." Greta stared at him. "The offer still stands. Do something or go away."

 

"Okay, okay. Nice to see you're still bossy."

 

"Only because you won't..." Greta drifted off when he put his mouth against her. In her somewhat limited experience, no one had ever done that. Greta was torn between enjoying what his mouth was doing and frustration that this was another thing between her and having what was on the video.

 

"Matt...please..."

 

Matt groaned and it reminded her of being on the road with him while they sought out the truth behind the stories. Sleeping in hotels similar to this one - in separate beds, of course. Surviving on fast food and the obsession that drew them together.

 

The chilling thought came back. Had the Shadow planned this all along? Bringing them together for some purpose they hadn't figured out?

 

"Greta? Greta, answer me. Please?"

 

Greta blinked. He'd stripped while she'd lost herself in her own head, but there was a definite edge of fear in the way he was looking at her. She understood completely. The last time she'd been unresponsive, it had been for a lot longer than a few minutes and he'd been the only one taking care of her. The way that had changed him was more obvious than it had been on the tape.

 

Greta reached her hands toward him and he didn't waste any time covering her body with his own. The hesitation was gone between them. Matt was inside her and she knew that even if the Shadow had planned this and made it happen that first time, Greta was happy. Happy enough to laugh.

 

Matt braced himself over her. "What?"

 

Greta shook her head. "Nothing."

 

"You know, most people don't laugh during sex."

 

"Then they're doing it wrong." Greta reached for him and pulled him into a kiss before he could ask anything else.

 

Since she'd come back to herself in this room - in this particular state - there had been an empty space. It was gone, now.

 

Matt felt better than she expected, but he was still moving so slow. Gentle, even rolls of his hips that didn't match what she'd seen on the video. What she now knew he was capable of.

 

"Not...gonna break," she said.

 

Matt buried his face in her shoulder. When he spoke, he sounded almost embarrassed. "I think I got too worked up."

 

"Then do it. It's okay." Greta whispered.

 

Matt picked up speed and she touched herself, her fingers brushing against where he entered. He came just before she did.

 

~~

 

Matt woke to the sound of the video playing again. At first, the video had disgusted him. It made him want to

 

But last night the Shadow hadn't been involved. It had just been the two of them and it had been amazing.

 

Greta was sitting on the end of the bed, still naked. She caressed her stomach while watching them on the screen. The possibility that this was an option without the Shadow's involvement changed the way he looked at the video. It was still a kind of rape, but Greta was right - they both were victims.

 

Matt pushed himself up, sliding to sit with his back against the headboard. The movement of the bed made Greta glance at him. "Good morning."

 

"No regrets?" He asked.

 

"Just one." Her pause after was long enough for Matt's stomach to sink. She hadn't wanted him. It was a mistake.

 

Greta pointed at the screen where Matt was pounding her into the mattress. "I want that."

 

"I'm not sure that's okay with your...uh...the baby."

 

"You made me this way," Greta turned so that he could see her profile as she continued stroking her stomach. "I can take it. You want to, anyway."

 

Matt followed her eyes to the rise in the sheet in his lap. "Say something if anything feels wrong."

 

"Since when do I ever keep quiet?" Greta grabbed a handful of the sheet and tugged it down to reveal him. It was different, being with him and being allowed to touch anything she wanted, to do whatever she wanted. To finally feel like she wasn't just his sidekick. It was a very, very different feeling.

 

"Is this weird?" Matt asked suddenly.

 

Greta shook her head. "I don't believe in normal anymore. So what does it matter?"

 

Matt watched her move up the bed to where she eventually knelt next to him. She touched his cock, stroking him. With her other hand, she continued rubbing her stomach.

 

"Does it hurt?" Matt asked.

 

Greta had to think about that. "Not really. It mostly feels like something is pushing my organs out of place. Walking differently. Hornier than I've ever been in my *life*. And I hear it's only gonna get worse."

 

"Yeah?"

 

"You tell me." Greta climbed into Matt's lap and pushed herself down on Matt's cock. She started slow, enjoying how Matt's cock put pressure in a whole new way with this position. It was a solid pleasure that radiated out through her body. She was so wet that it was almost too easy to get all of Matt inside her.

 

That last little bit of him caught, forcing Greta to add a little more pressure. The rest of Matt popped inside with a burst that made her shut her eyes. For a whole minute, she sat still and took in the feel of him. She rolled her hips when Matt began stroking her thigh.

 

"It's good."

 

"Is this?" Matt brought his other hand up to her stomach.

 

Greta lifted up and rocked down again. "Yeah."

 

"You like it."

 

Greta bit her lip and cracked her eyes open. "I hate it."

 

Greta dove forward to kiss him. The move pulled her up and Matt thrust to follow her. Greta couldn't keep her hips from moving, now. Every time she rocked, Matt slid around inside. The wet sound of them only served to turn her on more.

 

Greta was shocked when her back hit the bed. She hadn't even noticed Matt flipping them over. Her hands automatically wrapped around the headboard to mirror the video as each thrust came harder. "Fuck!"

 

"You okay?" Matt panted.

 

In answer, Greta moaned and raised her hips. The ball of her stomach rolled up and down with her body. As hard as Matt was going, it was likely going to have a concussion when it finally came out.

 

It was this thought of something large stretching her from the inside out that did it. Greta jerked her hips up, her entire body moving out of her control. Matt touched her stomach again. "...gonna come..."

 

~~

 

She must have blacked out because the next thing she knew, Matt was lying beside her and the sweat on her body was getting cold.

 

Greta was tracing random shapes on her shining stomach when Matt noticed she was awake. "So...you're back."

 

Matt sounded nervous. He'd been wondering if she was going to be possessed again. Even thinking about that month where he was just taking care of her scared him. Matt would do anything to keep her safe, but he wasn't sure he could go back to that again.

 

Greta sighed and squeezed her legs together, feeling Matt still inside her like a ghost. "Oh...my God..."

 

Matt rolled onto his side, propping his head on one arm. "Let's say that is a real human baby inside you...what do we do?"

 

"I guess I buy diapers." Greta said. "And then you get to change every last one of them."

 

"I'm being serious."

 

"You think I'm not? What do you want to do? Give it up for adoption? What if it _is_  evil or something? Can you really let someone get sucked into this just because they wanted a baby?" Greta held her stomach and sighed again. Thinking about what the future might hold only made her tired. "The Shadow made us do this for a reason. I don't know what it is, but I'm not letting anyone else get hurt by it if I can help it."

 

Matt nodded. "Okay. Right. You hungry?"

 

"Always."

 

"I'm gonna get cleaned up and go get something. Then we can get you packed up and to my place. It's not too far."

 

Greta nodded. "I know. A click of the heels."

 

"What?"

 

"You can watch the video later. I want out of this place. After food."

 

Matt pressed a kiss to her forehead and went to the bathroom. Greta listened to him get in the shower. Now that everything was over, she couldn't wait to get her own.

 

~~

 

Matt managed to get a job with an old friend of his. With nothing else to do, Greta kept catching herself cleaning and organizing his house. After their first week, Matt came home with one of those big baby books. They both had treated it like a joke, but she did flip through it. Laughing at things like 'nesting' until she realized that was exactly what she was doing to Matt's house.

 

After several weeks, they had settled into a more domestic rhythm. And the Shadow seemed to have disappeared completely. Everything almost felt normal except for her stomach growing what felt like every other day.

 

Greta lay awake in the bed they now shared. Matt was lying on his back, snoring, and Greta had been asleep, too. She didn't know what woke her until it happened again. An alien rippling feeling from deep in her stomach. Over the last week, she had hit some sort of growth spurt and if she still had three months left, she was going to be much larger than full term. If what she was carrying was human.

 

The 'baby' hadn't really been much of a mover this whole time and that added to the feeling Greta had that it wasn't a normal baby. Or that there was only one inside her.

 

Greta was lying on her side - always on her side, now - and she rubbed her stomach. Matt shifted in his sleep and she grabbed his nearest hand to put it on her stomach.

 

Matt's eyes cracked open. "Wha...? Is it the baby?"

 

"They're moving." Greta whispered.

 

Matt blinked away the sleep and rolled to face her. "Say what?"

 

Greta pressed Matt's hand harder against her stomach so that he could feel it. Matt's eyes widened. "Oh, my God...that doesn't feel right. Has it happened before?"

 

"Not really. From this side, it feels like..." Greta drifted off. She really didn't want to put the word that came to mind on it. Bugs. She felt like her stomach was full of bugs or worms.

 

Matt opened his mouth and shut it again, unsure of what to say. Instead, he scooted closer to Greta so that he could hold him the best he could with the writhing mass between them. Matt moved to kiss Greta's forehead and she moved her head to catch Matt's mouth. Like everything else over these last months, the sudden movement inside her stomach combined with Matt's hands on her made Greta desperate for him. All of him.

 

"Are you - " Matt began, but Greta was already half up and pushing Matt onto his back.

 

"When am I not?" Greta threw her leg over him to straddle Matt. "It's like they're pushing on some button inside me and...and _fuck_ , man."

 

"Button, huh?" Matt ran his hands over Greta's stomach and around to squeeze her ass. She was already naked. She was almost always naked in bed. "You mean like your - ?"

 

"Don't even say it." But the damage was done. Greta shivered. Matt had stumbled across it a couple weeks ago and that had been an experience. But she hated giving it a name. It didn't take much to get her wet anymore and that memory did it.

 

Matt smiled. "Tell me what you want."

 

In lieu of an answer, Greta kissed him. She shifted her legs so that Matt could get his pajama pants down and gasped. Inside, something shifted.

 

"What is it?" All concern.

 

"Feels...different. Oh, fuck..." Greta groaned as a thick, viscous blob of something pushed out of her. It dripped and soaked into Matt's pants. "What...was that?"

 

"Uh..." Matt reached behind her and touched whatever had just fallen out. His fingers came back shining and coated in something thick. "Um...I think you're leaking something. Do you - "

 

Greta nodded her head rapidly in anticipation of the question. Matt moved to get out from under her and Greta pounced on him, pinning him to the mattress. Something moved and when it did, Greta felt a combination of pain/pleasure that made it hard to hear Matt's words.

 

"Greta? You've gotta let me up so I can help you."

 

"No." Greta groaned out as a powerful contraction shot pain through her lower half.

 

"Greta! Let me - "

 

Another contraction and she screamed. She squeezed Matt's arms and dug her nails into his skin. Something pushed and forced Greta open from the inside. She could do nothing except ride out the pleasurable pain of giving birth to...something.

 

"Oh, my God..." Matt's eyes were staring behind Greta. "What is that?"

 

Greta grunted as the rest of it slid out, feeling like some sort of thick snake. She opened her mouth to ask Matt what it looked like when another began its descent. The ones remaining in her stomach flopped and twisted around each other, impatiently waiting their turns.

 

It finally stepped out of the shadows and she knew it had always been there. Watching. Waiting.

 

Matt stiffened, going into one of his still seizures. Greta managed to push her face into his chest before the screeching, almost mechanical, sound bounced around the inside of her skull. Like shards of glass, it cut and shredded her mind.

 

~~

 

The first thing Greta noticed was the sound of birds singing. It was a fresh morning sound. She rolled onto her side and stared at the window. The quality of the light was different. Somehow brighter and more pure than she could ever remember it being.

 

The stomach that she'd reluctantly gotten used to was gone. Her skin was loose where it had stretched, but the offspring hadn't let her have more than the most basic nourishment during the pregnancy. There wasn't any extra fat anywhere. Almost everything went to them.

 

After a few long minutes of gazing at the light and caressing the extra skin of her stomach, Greta forced herself to get up.

 

Besides her, the bed was empty. Matt was gone again.

 

Greta found some of her old clothes and she was just small enough to fit in them. It felt so good to be able to wear  _her_ clothes and not the stuff Matt picked out for her.

 

The rest of the house was quiet and still. Greta padded to the front door and opened it. Matt was sitting in a chair on the porch with a cigarette burning between his fingers. A small pile of them sat on the porch beside the chair. He'd cut back when Greta moved in. Matt didn't look up when she stepped out, hands in her pockets.

 

Greta found it hard to look at Matt, too. After the past few months of their strange, sexual, supernatural-based relationship, where did they go from here? They hadn't really been friends even before this. Just two people looking into a mystery that had taken so much from them before they met.

 

"I lost one day. You lost two." Matt said, curt.

 

"Didn't go get myself knocked up again, did I?" Greta had tried to make it a joke, but the fear of it happening again was there.

 

"Nope." Matt shook off some of the ashes from his latest cigarette.

 

Greta took the other chair on the porch and sat facing out from the house. They were quiet as Matt burned through five more cigarettes - going for his own personal record - and the morning light shifted past the high point in the sky.

 

"They were beautiful."

 

Greta hadn't expected to hear anything else from Matt. "Really?"

 

"Like the sun when it's just above the horizon in the morning. We made light, Greta. You and me." Matt's voice was distant and Greta wondered if he was still seeing them in his mind. Their children. Or whatever they were.

 

"It took them, didn't it?"

 

"I thought It did before I passed out. But when I woke up...I think it must be the first one. It hid where the Shadow couldn't get it."

 

Greta stared at him. "Where...?"

 

"In the bedroom window. I think it's kinda like a plant. It feeds on light. It puts out a lot of light, too."

 

Greta stood and heard Matt's footsteps following her back to the bedroom. That weirdness to the light was still there, but there was something more. The entire room was brighter.

 

"It puts out a lot of light." He repeated, pointing over her shoulder to something laying almost invisible on the window sill.

 

It was long and boneless as it slipped out of the window and to the bed where Greta became sure it was looking at her without eyes. It was bigger than she remembered feeling. Its whole body pulsed with light. "That...came out of me?"

 

"I was thinking that this," Matt went to stand next to the bed, "might be something that can fight that thing. Maybe It catches them before they become light and corrupts them or something."

 

Greta watched Matt reach toward it and flinched when it stretched out to meet him. To push its - face? - against Matt's hand. Greta did the same and had to force herself to stay still while it stretched toward her, too. It touched her with the warmth of a sunny summer day. "We made this?"

 

"Yeah, yeah we did. Look under the bed."

 

Greta looked at him before stepping back to crouch down and find nothing under the bed. And she could see all of the nothing because there were no shadows. Greta looked at the window and all of the light coming in it and back under the bed. "That's not possible."

 

"Not one shadow in this room. And if there aren't normal shadows, there can't be THE Shadow. We're safe as long as we have that with us. Maybe it's what we always needed to fight back."

 

"Matt," she straightened, "what happens now? With us?"

 

"What do you want to happen?" Matt asked.

 

Greta thought about that, reaching out a hand to gently stroke the offspring again. "I..."

 

Greta didn't know what she wanted or even how to say it. So she stepped closer to Matt until they were almost touching. When Matt didn't move away, she kissed him. "If you still want me...then I'm game."

 

"I was going to ask the same thing. Without your pregnancy hormones? You don't have to tie yourself to me now that we know..." Matt pointed at the little creature of light on the bed.

 

Greta smiled and kissed him again. "Are you still fighting this thing?"

 

"Until the Shadow's gone."

 

"Then I'm with you."

 

FIN

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Couple things:  
> 1) Good, bad, or needs improvement(and how?)?
> 
> 2) Super important: Do you think anyone would regret paying money for this? Looking into selling some stories and/or porn on Amazon because I have actually become incapable of getting a paying job and money is a thing I need. Now. Obviously you guys get it free - and will keep getting it free - because I like you. And I also hate paying for porn when I can find some free. But some people pay. Some people pay...


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